CHESTER, UK. June 17th, 2026 – The professionals most vulnerable to AI displacement are not the weakest technically, but are in fact the strongest, a data leadership expert has claimed.
According to James Matthews, a data leadership veteran with 25 years of experience in banking and financial services, the people who have built entire careers on technical brilliance, but never developed the commercial awareness and interpersonal skills that AI cannot replicate are the most vulnerable to being displaced.
“The people who are really technically strong but socially a bit weak are going to be challenged a lot by AI,” said Matthews, who has set up DataCareer.Coach in response. “If they are relying on technical skills alone, AI will quite likely take them out.
“For business owners and senior leaders, the frustration is just as acute. They have invested in technical talent that struggles to translate its work into language the boardroom understands – or to ask the right questions before spending weeks solving the wrong problem. AI will not fix that gap. If anything, it will widen it.”
The scale of the challenge is significant. The World Economic Forum projects that 92 million jobs will be displaced globally by 2030, with 41% of employers already planning workforce reductions in areas where AI can automate tasks. Research from Sigma Computing found that one in five business professionals report feeling judged by their own data teams due to a perceived lack of data knowledge – a communication gap that sits at the very heart of what DataCareer.Coach exists to address.
Matthews’ perspective is rooted in a foundation most data coaches lack. Studying Computer Science and Business at university, before beginning his career at KPMG – where his training focused on the benefits and risks that technology presents to business – gave him a rare ability to inhabit both worlds simultaneously. Growing up around his father’s work as a commercial accountant sharpened that commercial instinct further. It is why, throughout his career, he never saw technical delivery and business value as separate disciplines. And it is why helping others close that same gap feels less like a career pivot, and more like an inevitability.
Matthews, a self-confessed introvert who spent 25 years leading data teams in banking and financial services – adding tens of millions of pounds to the bottom line over his career – has seen the pattern repeat itself throughout his time in the industry.
“There are a lot of people who can do really technically brilliant stuff – but they can’t communicate the value of that work to the people they are working with, or establish what is really required beyond the high level request,” he added. “They deliver something technically brilliant that does not solve the problem.”
The issue, he says, runs deeper than presentation skills. It is about understanding what a business actually needs – and having the confidence to ask the right questions to find out.
“A lot of the time, people will say they want to understand something simple – sales by channel, for example – when what they’re really after is sales by channel for new customers. The skill lies in being able to ask further questions in the right way to work out the actual brief. Understanding how this fits into the commercial picture may also mean they can add additional insights over and above those originally requested – delivering real value, and positioning themselves well for more senior roles.”
Having business value front and centre is something Matthews feels strongly about: “A lot of people with technical skills go into work and think: ‘I enjoy playing around with this tool and I get paid to do it. Happy days.’ Well, actually you get paid to do it because you are supposed to deliver value with that tool. Having business value front and centre of what you do, and using your technical skills to augment that value – that is the way it should be.”
Matthews draws on personal experience too. A self-confessed introvert, he knows first-hand the pressure that builds when technical professionals struggle to communicate upwards.
“The types of people who are in these roles tend to be pretty introverted and pretty geeky – and I include myself in that. As a result, they tend to internalise a lot of emotions when they are struggling to communicate with their manager, or don’t know how to handle a difficult stage in their career productively. I spent a couple of years working for a manager who did not get me at all – and even though I am a naturally positive person, I hated it.”
“Over time, I developed my own set of skills, tools and techniques – drawing on psychology and NLP frameworks – to help me grow in these areas without losing who I am. I didn’t become a different person. I just became a more effective version of myself. That is exactly what I want to help others do.”
It is a commitment he holds himself to as much as his clients – continuing to invest in his own development, because he believes growth does not have a finish line.
DataCareer.Coach serves three distinct audiences. The first are ambitious professionals looking to progress into leadership, or consolidate their position at a senior level. The second are those not seeking promotion, but struggling with uncertainty – economic, organisational, or personal – and looking to feel more purposeful and valued in what they do. The third are business owners and senior leaders who know their technical teams are capable of delivering more, but are frustrated by the gap between what their data professionals produce and what the business actually needs.
When half of Matthews’ own team – including himself – were placed at risk of redundancy, he made it his personal mission to ensure every one of them secured an outcome they wanted. Four chose to leave, including Matthews himself. The three who wanted to stay did – each securing not just their role, but a pay rise.
“I have always believed that if you focus on developing people properly – their confidence, their commercial thinking, their ability to communicate – the outcomes take care of themselves. That redundancy process proved it. I just want to help more people experience that.”
“AI is great at many things, but it struggles to provide constructive challenge which is often exactly what is needed in these conversations. That is where a human coach, with real commercial experience, makes the difference.”
ENDS